That is it, people, you’re wanting on the all-new 2026 BMW iX3, codenamed NA5. That’s proper, what you see right here will not be yet one more idea automotive, however a full manufacturing mannequin that can really go on sale very quickly. Let that sink in for a second.
This didn’t come with out warning, after all. When the BMW Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse X was unveiled in March final 12 months, the then-head of BMW i Design, Kai Langer – who has not too long ago left the place to hitch Xiaomi, by the way – instructed me personally that the manufacturing model would look almost an identical to the idea. We’ve all heard this earlier than, so I instructed him I’d imagine it once I see it. I shouldn’t have doubted him – sorry, Kai!
This additionally begs the query: now that the iX3 really seems just like the idea automotive that preceded it, will the next-generation 3 Collection (codenamed NA0 for the all-electric i3) look precisely like the unique Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse sedan from 2023?
However earlier than we bounce the gun, let’s deal with what’s in entrance of us within the right here and now. Sure, the iX3 seems almost an identical to the idea, save for just a few particulars which have been watered down. The engraved BMW emblems have been swapped out for normal badges as anticipated, whereas the digital digicam facet mirrors and wingtip-door releases are actually extra typical gadgets. The door handles how have a flush, self-presenting design, a primary for BMW.
It’s the bits they didn’t change which can be extra stunning. The tall and slender kidney grille (absolutely illuminated as “gentle replaces chrome”), the large enclosed headlights, rounded and extra natural form, proper all the way down to the slightly nondescript taillights (cut up by the brand “valley” that’s replicated from the entrance finish), the shortage of rubber strips on the window/belt line, it has all survived the bounce from idea to manufacturing. Simply take a look at the side-by-side photographs above. Take notes, Subaru.
Dimension smart, the NA5 iX3 may be very near the most recent G45 X3, although they’re fully unrelated each visually and technically. The mid-sized SUV (or SAV, should you insist on BMW parlance) measures 4,782 mm lengthy, 1,895 mm large and 1,635 mm tall, making it marginally longer than the X3, however narrower and vertically shorter. Its wheelbase can be barely longer at 2,987 mm, whereas weighing 2,285 kg within the launch iX3 50 xDrive guise. The latter makes it round 350 kg heavier than the X3 20 xDrive.
The shock continues inside too. Should you had proven me this inside yesterday and mentioned it’s of an actual manufacturing BMW, I wouldn’t have believed you – simply as I instructed Kai final 12 months. However no, the alien-looking steering wheel with 12- and 6-o’clock spokes, the parallelogram (not rhombus – sure, I aced maths at school) centre display screen and full-width instrument cluster on the base of the windscreen are all nonetheless right here. The wraparound structure is undamaged too, although understandably the pumpkin color approach has been sobered up (it’s nonetheless an possibility, known as Castanea, however it’s far much less vibrant).
The 17.9-inch centre display screen now runs the most recent Panoramic iDrive – although the signature rotary dial itself is gone – that includes BMW Working System X (I don’t suppose the Munich model can shorten it to OS X this time round with out risking a lawsuit from Cupertino). BMW says it’s extra consumer pleasant (although the on-screen AC vent adjustment says in any other case) and customisable than ever, with entry to music/video streaming apps, video games (it’s nonetheless making an attempt to make AirConsole occur) and productiveness features.
A primary for BMW, the everyday meter cluster behind the steering wheel isn’t any extra. This has been substituted with the Panoramic Imaginative and prescient show that stretches from pillar to pillar on the bottom of the windscreen, 1.1 metre-wide. Like on the idea, this too is absolutely customisable, permitting the driving force to choose from quite a lot of widgets and select the place to show them. There’s additionally the brand new Clever Private Assistant avatar within the centre, maybe “impressed” by the Nomi interplay AI in Nio automobiles. This projection remains to be seen underneath direct daylight and thru polarised sun shades.
The upper placement of the reimagined instrument show is what has allowed BMW designers to undertake the novel steering wheel with vertical spokes. Look intently and also you’ll see that the horizontal prongs aren’t really linked to the rim, and also you as a substitute have little tabs/cutouts to wrap your thumbs round, à la the OG Proton Saga. The buttons function through contact, however with haptic suggestions. There may be additionally a extra typical M Sport wheel with out vertical spokes for the much less adventurous.
Even with the full-width Panoramic Imaginative and prescient as commonplace, the BMW iX3 remains to be out there with a 3D Head-Up Show projected on the windscreen. Additionally on are customisable cabin ambient lighting (peeking by way of the material layers), a surprisingly modest 13-speaker Harman Kardon audio setup (helps BMW HypersonX soundscape for digital sounds) and a hard and fast panoramic sunroof. The glass ceiling doesn’t have a canopy, however BMW claims it has distinctive photo voltaic vitality filtering and 100% UV safety.
Past that, passenger room each entrance and rear is alleged to be considerably elevated over the previous-generation mannequin, with the rear bench now adopting the most recent sofa-like form and really feel we’ve seen on the 7 Collection and XM fashions. The boot swallows 520 litres, with an added bonus of a 58 litre frunk underneath the bonnet.
However sufficient with the boring static stuff already, let’s speak tech. The NA5 BMW iX3 is constructed on a model new structure, being the primary of a whole household of future Neue Klasse fashions to return. Neue Klasse is actually German for New Class, and it’s a time period that BMW has used as soon as earlier than. Again then, it described a pioneering sequence of fashions within the Nineteen Sixties that successfully saved the BMW firm from its post-war monetary struggles.
For the fashionable age, BMW as soon as once more claims to have taken a big step ahead with this vary or Neue Klasse automobiles, beginning with what we see right here. The numbers converse for themselves: 800V structure (a BMW first), 108.7 kWh usable NMC battery (116 kWh gross), as much as 805 km WLTP vary, 400 kW max DC charging, and the flexibility to achieve 372 km of vary in simply 10 minutes.
For a fast comparability, the outgoing iX3 – itself solely launched in 2021 – had a 73.8 kWh usable battery capability, giving a 460 km WLTP vary. In order that’s 75% extra vary with a 47% bump in battery measurement. That’s progress proper there, and maybe a well timed reminder that EV know-how remains to be on a steep trajectory.
The massive bounce is achieved through a mess of developments. The newest sixth-generation BMW eDrive tech (Gen6) developed for the Neue Klasse household makes use of electrical motors with 40% much less vitality loss, whereas being 10% lighter and 20% cheaper to supply. Then there’s the brand new cylindrical cell design with 20% greater vitality density and 30% improve in charging velocity. Icing on the cake is the extra aerodynamic physique, now all the way down to a drag coefficient of 0.24 Cd – one of the best in its class. And whereas technically not a discount, the NA5 iX30 weighs simply 30 kg greater than its G08 predecessor, regardless of the massively bigger battery.
In iX3 50 xDrive kind – discover the brand new naming conference, 50 xDrive as a substitute of xDrive50 making for clearer bodily badging – the electrical SUV will get two motors: a brand new asynchronous motor (ASM) on the entrance making 167 PS and 255 Nm, plus an electrically excited synchronous motor (EESM) motor driving the rear axle with 326 PS and 435 Nm. Collectively, the overall system output is 469 PS and 645 Nm, with a 0-100 km/h time of 4.9 seconds and a 210 km/h prime velocity.
The brand new 800V electrical structure additionally permits for a lot faster DC charging, as much as 400 kW. BMW claims the automotive can keep the height charging charge for so long as 5 minutes and in superb situations, yield a ten%-80% prime up in as brief as 21 minutes – that’s staggering for a battery this massive. Crucially, in contrast to the new electrical Mercedes-Benz CLA, the iX3 helps older 400V chargers too through a switching matrix. For AC, it has an 11 kW OBC as commonplace, plus an non-obligatory 22 kW improve. The charging flap can be powered, and it makes use of AI to routinely open and shut at charging stations.
Different developments embody the change from a IGBT to an SiC inverter for higher effectivity and reliability, whereas a so-called Power Grasp now sits above the HV battery pack to manage the ability circulate higher (that is additionally mentioned to reinforce repairability because it’s simply accessible underneath the rear seats) Past motoring, the automotive additionally helps Automobile-to-Load (V2L), Automobile-to-Dwelling (V2H) and Automobile-to-Grid (V2G) features. V2H virtually converts the automobile into a brief storage system for photo voltaic vitality generated at residence, whereas V2G permits clients to combine their automotive into the ability grid.
Each V2H and V2G require using a brand new BMW Wallbox Skilled (DC). Not like what the title suggests nonetheless, it’s not a compact DC quick charger in your residence. As a substitute, it’s technically an AC wallbox (as much as 22 kW, although it makes use of a CCS2 cable) that helps bidirectional charging, permitting the iX3 to discharge as much as 11 kW again into the housing energy community. Whether or not this will likely be out there and even work in Malaysia stays to be seen, after all.
After which we get to the driving dynamics a part of all of it. “Virtually all the pieces about it’s new, but it’s also extra BMW than ever,” mentioned Oliver Zipse, chairman of the Board of Administration of BMW AG. Core to the model to the purpose of being synonymous with it’s “Sheer Driving Pleasure,” coincidentally a tagline coined for the unique Neue Klasse again in 1962. The brand new Neue Klasse is alleged to uphold that declare greater than ever, regardless of it being absolutely electrical.
It makes use of one thing hilariously named the Coronary heart of Pleasure, a driving dynamics administration “superbrain” liable for the drivetrain, brakes, vitality recuperation and steering sub-functions, processing data as much as ten instances quicker than typical management models. Even with commonplace passive spring and damper setup, the brand new iX3 drives and steers uniquely like a correct BMW – nicely, in keeping with BMW a minimum of – with a near-perfect 49:51 weight distribution and a low centre of gravity.
It stops even higher than a typical BMW, apparently, with one thing known as Delicate Cease enabling the “smoothest stopping course of ever achieved by a BMW.” Attention-grabbing reality, the corporate says the iX3 will use its brake vitality regeneration system as much as 98% of all braking in on a regular basis driving, as a substitute of utilizing its bodily brakes.
On the autonomous driving entrance, the brand new mannequin helps the next degree of hands-free driving through its Motorway Assistant characteristic. With it activated, drivers can take their arms off the steering wheel for lengthy intervals on open highways, with out being nagged on to carry the steering each jiffy.
Even should you do give some steering inputs or calmly faucet on the brakes with the ACC on, the system will work with the driving force and proceed working inside its window, as a substitute of both preventing off the inputs (like in most extra heavy-handed semi-autonomous methods) of turning off fully, requiring you to modify it again on. BMW calls this Symbiotic Drive or cooperative steering and braking, introducing a complete new type of “Sheer Driving Pleasure.”
Metropolis Assistant can be new, serving to the automotive recognise and cease at visitors lights when wanted, and driving off once more on inexperienced. That is all because of the Neue Klasse’s “Superbrain of automated driving,” mentioned to have 20 instances better processing energy than typical management models.
So there you go, a concise abstract (belief me, that is as brief as I could make it – the press launch is 58 pages lengthy!) of the all-new 2026 BMW iX3 NA5. What to do you consider its seems and tech, do remark beneath!
GALLERY: 2026 BMW iX3 50 xDrive M Sport
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